


Name of Thy Ancestors

by TwinApollo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Fatherly Obi-Wan, Hurt Luke, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Its gets a little dark and I was slightly uncomfortable writing this, Minor Character Death, Obi-Wan raises Luke, Slavery, Tatooine Slave Culture, no beta; we die like men, nothing too graphic tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:54:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21907057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinApollo/pseuds/TwinApollo
Summary: Luke has been hidden on Tatooine with his Aunt and Uncle for the last five years. Owen is too strict on little Luke but the family has bigger problems when a drought and a debt bring the Hutts to the farm. Can Obi-Wan help Luke recover and pick up the pieces of his broken life?"Luke refuses to be touched and Obi-Wan learns to keep his distance for the boy’s comfort. He speaks in one syllable replies and Obi-Wan is reminded everyday of how he failed Luke. Of how he failed Anakin."
Relationships: Biggs Darklighter & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Luke Skywalker, Owen Lars & Luke Skywalker & Beru Whitesun, Owen Lars/Beru Whitesun
Comments: 7
Kudos: 229





	Name of Thy Ancestors

**Author's Note:**

> Just watched Star Wars for the first time last week and I loved it. I wished that Luke was able to know Obi-Wan better and this is my messed up way of that happening. I regret everything and nothing. Hope you guys like it, its short but sweet-ish in the end I promise.
> 
> Also the formatting might be a little weird because I wrote this as Luke's backstory for another fic I was thinking of writing. It was planned to just be something I could look back at and use as a reference. I didn't decide to post it until I was done and I didn't feel like going back to change everything to the right pov.

Luke was lonely.  
His Uncle although a good man never let Luke leave the farm and would not let him go to school in Anchorhead. Luke was chastised if he asked about his parents and only Beru would tell him little things about them that left him thirsting for more. Owen was strict and did not like Luke acting rash or confident (like his father Aunt Beru once said). Owen thought he was protecting him in a misguided way. 

However, this only made Luke quiet and more submissive. He did not like speaking for he always got in trouble for his words. He never said anything bad or disrespectful it was just that Luke acted like his father and Owen could not stand it. Little Luke had begun to feel that something was wrong with him and that speaking his opinion or acting like himself was wrong. This led to a very introspective boy who observed rather than acted.

When he was five Tatooine saw a drought unlike any other. Water was scarce and everyone had reached a new peak of poverty and desperation. The Lars had to ration what little water the farm had managed to produce but even then, the three were weak from fatigue, hunger, and thirst. 

Owen Lars owed money to a Hutt affiliated business in Mos Eisley. It was not a large sum of money and had only been for some updated equipment on the farm, a common practice every farmer on the outskirts of settlements did to survive. Owen had already paid most of it off over the last two years and this season was to see him free of debt. But the drought kept him from making any money and he was in the worst position financially than any year before.

The debt was on the back of Owen’s mind, everyone did it and he had already paid most of it off. The Hutts were cruel yes, but with Freeman they were more forgiving at times. Many other farms were unable to pay this season as well, to no repercussions. It was only those with the slave names that had to worry. His wife’s cousin who still bore the name Whitesun had been reenslaved as payment and now had to work until his debt was absolved. 

Owen knew that would never be the case. The Hutts have ways of making sure no one can easily escape the cruel chain of slavery. The Lars however were a well-known freemen family and had a long-respected history in Anchorhead and Mos Eisley. It was times like these Owen was glad he had not allowed Luke to go to school.

He and Beru were fighting over that fact. He did not want anyone to know of Luke for the empire surely had eyes everywhere, even here on the outer Rim. He had conceded that he would allow the boy to go but only as a Lars. Beru was angry at that fact always saying how Luke deserved to be able to keep the last thing his father could give him; the Skywalker family name. 

Her argument was so passionate Owen was going to give in this summer and finally let him enroll for the next year, but now he would not. If the Hutts ever found that a descendant from the slave line of Skywalker lived on this farm surely they would come for him and then it wouldn’t take long for them to remember his wife used to bear the name Whitesun. The Lars name could not protect two from the history of indenturement.

Owen cursed the Hutts they held a notion that anything once owned would always in a way still be theirs. A dumb belief from their beginnings that even if lost, stolen, sold, or freed what once was would find its way back. So, if one owed money and held such a name the Hutts felt it was their right and your destiny to become property once more. It was your fate to be an object, a tool to be used how they saw fit. This thinking had begun to leak into the other freemen as well as others in Hutt space. Those who were freed and held a name of slavery were considered dirtier than slaves themselves. For they did not know their place and were going against the will of fate. 

Owen did not want Luke to be considered as inferior by the other children at school, couldn’t handle if Luke came home crying with bruises and cuts like Beru had when she was his age. Her father had barely managed to free himself and Beru when she was nine. He couldn’t understand why the woman was so adamant for him to go. He knew that Beru had met many friends at school and it was where they had first met, but Beru still held scars from those days. Long lines that ran from her back and down her legs. He sighed “ Why did Kenobi bring him to Tatooine?” “Was he not fully aware of the danger a Skywalker would be in here?”

Kenobi had in fact underestimated the social and commercial impacts slavery had on Tatooine. He did not comprehend just how intertwined it was with the culture and everyday lives on the desert planet. The intricacies and complexities of the Tatooine societal hierarchy was more complicated than he once believed. It made the old master understand why his padawan had been so bitter and jaded. Why Anakin would stand up straight, back rigid and stare someone in the face when he introduced himself as Skywalker. Many thought it was arrogance or pride and berated him for it. Kenobi was ashamed that he himself had thought the same at one point. Now he could see it was determination, bravery and acceptance in Anakin’s eyes. 

“I am a Skywalker and I am not an object but a Jedi; I refuse to be ashamed of my name.” His stance seemed to say.

Luke as a Skywalker was not as safe here as Obi-Wan had first believed but he could do nothing of it now but watch him even more carefully. The boy who looked so much like Anakin had a home here. He had an Aunt and Uncle who loved him. Kenobi couldn’t take him away from that. He would be lying if he said he didn’t worry about Owen’s demeanor toward Luke, but the man still loved the boy like his own. 

The toddler who ran around and laughed loudly was no longer there, replaced by a pensive child who spoke no more than necessary. The years before, Luke would tinker and play with droids as he worked or sift through the sand for interesting treasures Beru said Luke called them. Usually they were bleached white bones, scrap metal, or the occasional shiny rock but the boy would smile and return home with them. For what, Kenobi didn’t know but it was heartwarming to see such an innocent smile. He would watch the small boy frolic through the sand with warmth. 

Now, Luke did his chores in an almost robotic motion and didn’t even pause to wonder what may lay underneath the sands by his feet. His small hands were no longer covered in oil and Obi-Wan could not see his tool belt cinched around his waist like usual. His eyes seemed sad and the boy hunched his shoulders into himself and walked numbly with his head down. He caught sight of Luke’s eyes in his binoculars one day from his perch on the ridge beyond the farm. They boy held a look so disheartening on such a young child. The blue depths tumbled with self-doubt and uncertainty and for a moment he could have swore it was Anakin walking the sands below.

The two may have showed it in very different ways but they both struggled with the same demons. Anakin’s doubt in himself had fed the dark. He had always believed that he wasn’t wanted. That he was nothing but a fraud or a failure no matter how much he succeeded. Anakin covered it up with arrogance and overconfidence. He acted rash and hid behind the mask of a Jedi who feared nothing and could defeat anything.

Luke however seemed to close in on himself. He was now distant from everyone most of all himself. Denying what interested him and pretending to be some one he was not. Luke was like a breathing shell of the lively boy he once was. Going through the motions of life and not actually living it. He could tell that Luke unlike his father had an amazing sense of self control. 

He could see it in the way his hands twitched when he walked by the tool bench outside the garage. Desperately wanting to pick them up and take something apart but the boy just clenched his fist and walked right on by. He saw it in the way Luke would open his mouth to say something to his uncle then shut it just as fast and stay quiet. Jaw tensed and posture rigid. 

It was an amazing amount of self-control for one so small but Obi-Wan wished it didn’t show itself in such a concerning manner. He promised himself he would talk to Beru about these changes in Luke when he returned. She was the only person ever able to make Owen Lars see reason. He took one last look at the boy through his binoc’s and then went on his way.

Obi-Wan had picked up a transmission from a small Imperial fighter. It was a troop transport headed to the inner rim when it had some malfunctions with their hyperdrive core. The ship had to make an emergency landing at Mos Eisley and was due to touch down in the hour. It was probably nothing but a coincidence but Obi-Wan needed to keep an eye out just in case. He thought the sense of foreboding was from going to watch the Imperial ship but later he would realize he never should have left the farm unprotected.

Unknown to Owen Lars his secrecy and diminishing presence in the city was circulating rumors about his farm. He was limiting his exposure and visitors to keep Luke hidden but minds began to formulate their own reasons. Rumors and gossip said that Owen Lars had become more prosperous than he appeared. That his farm had found a gold mine of moisture and that he alone was sitting upon gallons of sparkling liquid. Many were desperate and greedy for water and eventually with a few well-placed words to the right Hutts the freemen of Anchorhead thought he would get what he deserved for hording so much of the precious liquid.

The Hutts themselves were excited about the prospect. Not only would they have the biggest collection of water. They could make a tidy profit by selling it for inflated prices because of the drought. It also renewed their ancient beliefs when they were told that Beru Lars was Beru Whitesun. Another piece of their property would be returned to them in exchange of Owen Lars debt.

They came the next morning with a group of ten or so men. The infamous ‘Breaker’ led them. Owen was surprised and ushered his wife inside. Beru, who always feared such a day, was ready and gathered Luke. She stuffed him in a secret compartment in the courtyard and said no matter what happened he would not leave until the bad men were gone. 

She told him if she and Owen were sleeping that he would have to wait for Ben Kenobi. If he did not appear in two days’ time to take a ship off Tatooine and to never tell anyone his name. He was then to find a man named Bail Organa on Alderaan. Luke was frightened and was left alone in the compartment.

Owen was surrounded by the men and they dragged him to the courtyard. It was only a minute later that his wife was ushered next to him. They asked him where his water was and when they realized his tanks had a pitiful amount, started to beat him. They did not believe him at first and when he did not know of any secret horde of water, threatened his wife. Owen could only hope that Beru had hidden Luke somewhere else in the homestead when one of the men tore off her blouse. His hope was dashed when Luke screamed and tumbled out of his hiding spot.

“Luke, run.” Owen howled

The boy ran toward them instead and his wife cried harder that he had not listened, his last hope of escape gone. She pulled him in an embrace, but he was ripped away from Beru by the Breaker himself. She let out a wail only a mother could produce, and Owen struggled against his captors to no avail.

“You really don’t have water, do you? The boy is so frail.” He grasped Luke’s thin arms and almost gently caressed Luke’s face. The child struggled in confusion. Luke was thin and malnourished they all were this summer, but Owen knew of the depraved interest the Hutt’s could take. The Breaker eyed Luke in a way that made Owen’s skin crawl. Hate overtook Owen at the thought of the man hurting Luke the way he had hurt his wife when she was a young slave girl.

“You still owe us money though Owen. And I think reclaiming some property is the best way to settle that.” The Breaker grasped Luke’s blonde hair tightly and forced his head up. Luke whimpered; his captor smiled in response.

“What’s your name, little one?” he asked too sweetly.

“He’s Luke Lars” Owen growled.

“Nice try, I know you don’t have children.” He backhanded Luke for Owen’s lie. The boy falling to stones of the courtyard. Blood ran down the young boy’s chin.

“Now, your name or I’ll kill her.” He seethed gesturing toward Beru.

Owen saw one of the men point a blaster at his wife. Luke started to cry, sobs heaving in his chest.

“Skywalker, Luke Skywalker. D-Don’t hurt Aunt Beru, please.” The boy cried.

“A Skywalker…?”

“ Ahhh, I see it now.” The man ran the muzzle of his blaster teasingly up Luke’s cheek. Luke tried to back away, but the man once again had an iron grip on his hair.

“I bet your just as delicious as your father was.” the man crooned as he licked the shell of Luke’s ear. 

“Don’t touch him” Beru screamed.

That was all that Beru could take, she ran toward Luke but stopped dead in her tracks her eyes going dim. In her last moments of lucidness, she glanced at the hole in her chest in confusion before they rolled back into her head. Owen was already moving before her limp body hit the ground, red clouded his vision but idly he could hear Luke screaming in the background. Owen reached for his knife in his boot and managed to stick it in one of the guard’s throats before he too was shot down. Luke was left alone and terrified.

The men take Luke to Mos Eisley where he is to be branded and sold. Usually an offer is made to the last master of the slave’s line but Watto died years ago. Luke is branded and hurt by the men before being left in a cage to await transport. Meanwhile Obi-Wan feels Luke’s presence in the city and the fact that something is very wrong. 

He tracks Luke’s presence to one of the Hutt’s warehouses in the city’s older district. Ice ran through him; this was the building they stored slaves before transport. Obi-Wan breaks into the building, as he sneaks toward Luke’s force signature he stops in his tracks. He can hear a conversation from the room to his right.

“Stars, a Skywalker, can you believe that?” an older man asks the Twi’Lek next to him. The alien chuckles in response before taking a long hit of the horrid tobacco the Hutts are so fond of. The smell makes his nose wrinkle in disgust.

“You know what they used to say about Skywalker’s right?” one of the other goons tells the older man.

“They’re only good for one thing..” What the men say next had Obi-Wan frozen in place. A white hot anger writhes in his belly. Obi-Wan must stop himself from letting the fury take over. He rests his head against the wall next to the door and takes deep breathes.

The older man from before speaks up once more.

“I’m glad I was the one to break the boy,” the human held three fingers up. “That’s three generations I’ve had the pleasure of breaking” He got a wistful look on his face.

“Shmi was such fun but her boy, Anakin, by the gods… how he screamed. His tight little….” Obi-Wan didn’t let him finish the thought. 

He worries that the blood on his robes is what makes Luke freeze when he finds him. The boy is tattered and bruised huddled in the corner of his cell. He can see a bloody bite mark on his shoulder, deep and gushing. He remembers the same bite on Anakin’s shoulder and on Beru when he had first taken Luke to them. Was it some kind of sick signature? A symbol showing, they had been broken in and more importantly who had done it.

Obi-Wan unlocks the door and is unnerved that Luke doesn’t cower in fear. The five year old looks distantly ahead, eyes unseeing. He doesn’t react beside a sharp inhale as Obi-Wan picks him up. He doesn’t move or speak the whole time. The boy was traumatized his mind somewhere else and far far away from where he is now. It isn’t until hours later when they are outside the Lars farm and Obi-Wan goes to check for Owen and Beru that Luke moves and grabs Obi-Wans cloak.

“They’re sleeping” he whispers. 

Its then that Kenobi really looks at Luke and realizes the blood splattered upon his clothes cannot possibly be his own. They’re sleeping. He blinks away the tears and guilt at having left for Mos Eisley and gets back in the speeder. It takes less than an hour to get to his hidden abode in the Jutland Wastes and in that time the twin suns have started to peak over the horizon. He can see Luke more clearly in the light and although the boys face remains impassive his eyes are devastated and the self-hate that found a home there these last years had grown exponentially. Tatooine was a grave mistake but he does not know of anywhere else to take him.

The boy relaxes somewhat when he is told his name is Ben Kenobi. He sets up a room for him in the hidden cave dwelling and the boy keeps himself hidden away and rarely sleeps or eats. Luke refuses to be touched and Obi-Wan learns to keep his distance for the boy’s comfort. He speaks in one syllable replies and Obi-Wan is reminded everyday of how he failed Luke. Of how he failed Anakin.

The next week when he is sure Luke won’t run away or do something stupid, he goes and buries the Lars. The look in Luke’s eyes when he first came scared Obi-Wan to his core and he had not wanted to leave him alone. His wait allowed the corpses to become bloated and rank with decay. Some sort of desert scavenger had already picked at the flesh and Obi-Wan covered his face with his scarf to get away from the putrid smell. He hauls the bodies in the speeder to where Anakin’s mother is buried. 

He lays the Lars to rest next to Shmi Skywalker and her husband. It took him all day to find enough rocks to cover both bodies. Now, the twin sunset shines on four gleaming mounds on the canyon plateau. He debated making another one in memory of Anakin but could not bring himself to do so. He returns to Luke who had not moved from where he left him that morning. The boy stares lost at the cave wall.

After the first few weeks Obi-Wan can no longer stand the boys nightmares and comes into his room while he is thrashing in bed. He focused the force to calm the young boy’s mind, hoping that he can at least give him this peace. The boy quiets and drifts into a restful slumber. The next morning the boy says two syllable words and eats some fruit with Ben at the table. It’s a small victory but it brings a smile to his face.

Over the next few months Luke opens up more and more. He eats with him at the table more often than not. The boy has graduated to complete sentences and after taking him on a walk through the canyon Luke hesitantly took Ben’s hand in his own. Ben gave the hand a delicate squeeze and led them back home.

Home. 

He had never called this place that in the last five and a half years of living on this cursed planet. But with Luke by his side it feels like a place he could let be his home. Luke sleeps more steadily and the persistent dark under eyes disappear. The blues of his eyes shine brighter. Luke has started to ask questions and Ben realizes that Luke may be even more curious than his father. Unlike Owen he never scolds Luke for asking and encourages his inquisitive nature. The boy begins to flourish, and Ben almost cries when he calls him Uncle Ben.

Luke’s room begins to fill with spare parts and wrenches and tools of all kinds. It reminds him of Anakin’s room in the Jedi Temple. Ben finds himself ruining his robes from using them to wipe the oil and soot from Luke’s face. Luke always gives him a toothy grin in response. 

Obi-Wan lets it slip in idle conversation that Luke’s father was a pilot and now Luke has a new obsession. Fighters, freighters, and starships of all kind fascinate him to no end. He studies their schematics and begs Ben to teach him how to drive the land speeder.

Ben was only able to deny him for a week before he caved. The boy sat excitedly in the driver seat nearly bouncing up and down. He had the sand goggles pulled over his eyes and Ben started to teach him the controls. He thought the experience would remind him too much of Anakin. Ben however found that his son had a level of patience Anakin had lacked. Yes, the boy was foolhardy and excitable, but he listened and thought where Anakin would have grinned and took off preferring to figure it out by himself. For some reason it hurt that Luke didn’t.

Not that Luke didn’t seem to not do that too. He apparently did so in a more tactful fashion. To his chagrin it took Ben a week to figure out that Luke was sneaking out at night to fly the speeder through the canyon. Like Father, Like Son after all. Luke was taking the turns and crevices of Beggar’s Canyon at an unimaginable speed. Ben wondered if the boy had tampered with the engine to make it faster. He watched in a mix of awe, frustration, and worry as the boy no doubt used the force to warn him of the coming obstacles. He waited for him and gave Luke the scolding of his life. The boy agreed he would not do it again, but he knew he’d have to keep a keen eye on the mischievous child.

He was just as strong if not more so than Anakin in the force. He thought of Luke’s destiny of how he was supposed to kill Sidious… and his father. Could Obi-Wan do that? Train Luke to kill the only other child he had practically raised. Anakin, the man he loved like a son and a brother. He saw Anakin’s face mirrored in Luke’s every day and it pained him greatly.

No.

He was no longer Obi-Wan but Ben. He would not make the same mistakes with Luke. Luke would have a normal life, one without war or death. Ben would not train him, to do so would be sentencing the boy to a life of pain and suffering.

It was on Luke’s seventh birthday that he asked Ben if he could go to school. Ben was taken aback; he had never asked about it before this moment. He had caught Luke up on his learning, he could now read, write, and speak common instead of the Huttese most residents used. Luke it was revealed was also fluent in the language of slaves on Tattooine. 

The language had no official name and was called ‘dirt speak’ by the Freeman/Hutts and “Tongue of my Ancestors” by the slaves who used it. Aunt Beru had taught him her native tongue and the two would speak it when Owen was away. He vaguely remembered hearing Anakin talk under his breath in such a language.

He was proficient for his age in math and science, but Ben could not bare to teach him of history. Many of the old wars Ben had experienced firsthand and the Empire did not like anyone learning anything but their propaganda. He would not put the boy in danger by teaching him the truth of history.

Luke looked so nervous like he knew Ben would say no. Ben wondered why that was? Luke was seven and had not had a single friend in his life. Ben felt for the young Skywalker; he deserved to be around other children. To laugh and play.

“Why, of course Luke.” His eyes lit up in happiness and he sprung from the kitchen chair with a whoop. His joy became Ben’s joy.

The first day of Survival School in Anchorhead came around and both were nervous. Ben the crazy hermit got stares and they only grew when a small boy leapt out of his speeder and froze in front of the school. Luke was anxious but his excitement was stronger. He only hesitated a minute then went through the door.

That evening when he picked Luke up the boy had a black eye and didn’t say a word. He told him at home that other children called him trash and hit him. Ben convinced him to give school one more try, Luke had been so excited for school and it would pain him for the boy to give up so easily. Surely there was at least one child who Luke could be friends with?

He came home the next day with a tanned raven-haired boy. He said his name was Biggs Darklighter. He had a slave name like Luke and Anakin. The two gushed over ships and spoke in the ancestor tongue like Luke and Beru had. They were inseparable and became fast friends. Ben chuckled that the two brought out the best in each other. It did not take long for the rest of the children to accept the charismatic boys as equals and the tension between the Freemen and the freed slave families were lessened in Anchorhead.

Luke grew over the next years and Ben had never been so proud. A memory of Anakin being knighted flashed through his head before he could shake it away. The boy was lively, and Biggs had eased away the rest of the jaggedness that Ben himself could not. Luke at the age of sixteen was a fine young man who listened and observed before he acted. He held patience yet a bravery so profound that he sometimes couldn’t help but think of Anakin. But Luke wanted more than Tatooine. 

He could feel it in him, the thirst for adventure and excitement. The bafflement of injustice and the sense to do right. Just like Padme. So, when Biggs left to join the academy and during the next harvest word spread that he had deserted to join the Rebellion. Ben could sense the conflict in Luke.

Before he could speak to the boy about it familiar droids fell from the sky. Luke found them and brought them before the only Kenobi he knew. Fear and grief struck Obi-Wan; Luke could not escape his destiny. He felt his hope dwindle away at the determination in his eyes to help Leia, Luke Skywalker needed to be a Jedi. He could tell Luke felt connected to the young teenager who was his secret sister and he held the indescribable need to save her. His blue eyes held a look of pure intent and a longing for justice. Just like his father.

“Do you know this ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’?”

“I would hope so, he is me.”


End file.
